4-H Program Offers Glimpse of Farm Life 100 Years Ago

December 13, 2001

Friends of the Schuylkill County 4-H Program can visit a world where horses and mules provide the power to plow a field or make a trip to town, and where milk cools in sweating stone crocks in the spring house. They can open a window on a place where families labor together from sunup to sundown through the changing seasons, and where the pace of life is slower than a speeding car or an online instant message. They can take a journey to Pennsylvania's farming past-and they can do so simply by opening a book. George Grier's The Old Family Farm: Farm Life 100 Years Ago provides a revealing look at the past, and it's being offered for sale with proceeds going to benefit the Schuylkill County 4-H Development Fund.

The Old Family Farm leads readers on a journey through the revolving seasons in a world where the Model T is just over the horizon and telephones are just for city folk. Based on interviews with dozens of people who grew up on farms in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the early 1900s, it offers readers over 140 pages of easy-to-read stories, black-and-white photos, and vintage artwork. Author George Grier, himself the product of a Maryland farm, built his account of farm life around the fictional Young George, a boy born on a farm in 1904. Based on the recollections of farm dwellers, Grier created over 65 short stories, each of them using his young fictional character to illustrate an aspect of farm life in the last century.

Readers can turn to stories like "Ole Time Christmas", "One Room School", and "The Country Doctor" for accounts of celebrations, education, and medicine in days of yore; or they can check out selections like "Gees and Haws", "Chestnuts and Chinquapins", and "A Milk Cow's Dream" for a look some of the more curious aspects of country life. Even the most earthy aspects of farm life are covered, and readers are sure to smile at "Privy-A Country Bathroom" and "Saturday Night Baths".

The Old Family Farm is available for $14.95 at the Schuylkill County Extension Office, 1202 Ag Center Drive, Pottsville (just off the Gordon Nagle Trail, Rte. 901). Books may be purchased between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, or orders may be called in to the office and shipped to the purchaser for an additional $4.95, prepaid. Checks or money orders may be made out to the Schuylkill County 4-H Development Fund. Those interested may call the Extension office at (570) 622-4225, or e-mail SchuylkillExt@psu.edu and put 4-H question in the subject line.

All proceeds from the sale of the book benefit the Schuylkill County 4-H Development Fund. In 2001, the Development Fund helped to support youth development programs that reached over 1,500 young people. The 4-H program in is growing at an extraordinary rate, and funding is invaluable as dozens of new programs take shape. The Schuylkill County 4-H Development Fund helps to send 4-H'ers to camp, provide judges and prizes for multiple contests at the county fair, provide educational day camps to underprivileged local youth, send county 4-H'ers to events like the National 4-H Archery Shoot and the National 4-H Congress, and provide recognition and scholarships for outstanding 4-H members.

4-H is a not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization that is designed to allow youth to learn by doing. 4-H is open to all youths between 8 and 18, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin or disability. 4-H clubs in Schuylkill County offer young people between the ages of 8 and 18 the traditional types of 4-H projects-those dealing with horses, cattle, sheep, and other large animals. But 4-H also offers dozens of other projects-activities like bicycling, learning proper pet care, building model rockets, or practicing shooting sports. To find out more about 4-H in Schuylkill County, contact the Schuylkill County Extension Office at (570) 622-4225 during business hours or e-mail SchuylkillExt@psu.edu and put 4-H question in the subject line.